Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
Welcome back to another edition of Questions and Answers! In this section, we will endeavour to answer your Ubuntu questions. Be sure to add details of the version of your operating system and your hardware. I will try to remove any personally identifiable strings from questions, but it is best not to include things like serial numbers, UUIDs or IP addresses. If your question does not appear immediately, it is just because there is such a lot, and I do them, first-come-first-served.
At work, we pre-install customers’ PC’s with what they need. We don’t, however, interfere with passwords. That is the customer’s baby. (I have been bitten too many times over the years with “what’s my password?” phone calls at ungodly hours.) If I need to issue you a temporary password, that you need to change, it will be something like “*I.eat.ICECREAM.0n@sund4ymorn1ng^^” - so that they change it, as it is too much to type, or too difficult to remember. Too many times have I seen Administrators issue ‘Login1’ or ‘Password.1’ and the user just continues with Login2 etc. *grumble* Moving right along… The thing that gets my goat is, without fail, I will still get: “I forgot my password, what did you make it?” When I didn’t. I have a line I spin when they ask me what they should make it. My usual for Skype is: use the Husband/kid/dog’s name and in that order. That way, when I get the line above about what *I* made the password - blame shifting, I say -, I retort with the same line, hopefully helping them remember. This has had mixed success, as usually they (users) think their name with a year after is a good password, then get upset when their emails/Fakebook/Skype are hacked or whatever. (Try it out to see how lax passwords are, pick a random on FB and try name +1 or name +123… Louise in Australia, change your password, Louise123 is a horrible password!!) What are some good password recipes you give customers/family? Share them with us.
Q: I have ubuntu 20.04 on my Acer laptop. It works fine, but when I run youtube-dl -U , I get an error saying Debian does not allow upgrades. I am lost, this is the only way I know how. I have done sudo apt update / upgrade, but it stays the old version.
A: The short answer is… Run these 4 commands in order: sudo apt remove youtube-dl
sudo curl -L https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
sudo apt install python3-pip or go here:
https://write.corbpie.com/how-to-install-upgrade-youtube-dl-on-ubuntu-20-04/
Q: Just so you know I am no computer savvy spring chicken. I use Ubuntu 18.04 with Shotwell and Fotoxx to manage my photos of my cat. Here she is; <dsc04052021524.jpg> I have started taking videos with my camera and playback is with VLC. It is the ugliest interface I have seen in a long time. Under “plugins and extensions”, I can download skins , but I can’t apply them. Why?
A: I cannot tell you that. I have always grabbed my .vlt-files (VLC theme files) and in ‘preferences’, changed to ‘custom skin’ in the ‘look and feel’ and manually selected the path. It always works.
Q: I was trying to get MacOS on my laptop via KVM , but it keeps failing, right in the beginning one command keeps failing , but I copy / paste it. ayesha@ayesha egrep -c ‘(svm|vmx)’ /proc/cpuinfo bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
A: Word processors… (' != ‘) rather type it out than copy and pasting it. It is good practice. Since this is in a word processor also, here is a picture:
Q: I am not a night owl, I am an early bird, and I would like to have my laptop wake up with me in the morning, so that when I get up, it is waiting ready for me. I don’t want to leave it on all night either. Is this even possible?
A: I turn mine on - on the way to the kettle, it’s one button press, but to each his own. What you are looking for is “rtcwake”. You can test if your computer supports this by:
sudo rtcwake -m mem -s 30 -if you leave it in sleep and: sudo rtcwake -m off -s 60 -if you turn it off.
Q: I got a real cheapie plastic HP laptop, in purple, beggars can’t be choosers, that has Windows 10 home on it. I want to put Xubuntu or Lubuntu on it, but it wont let me boot off my USB stick. Always Windows. Help?
A: Turn off fast boot (for now) in the BIOS, it caches the Windows boot, do the F9 thing to boot off your Ubuntu thumb drive and turn it back on. That *should sort you out, if not, let me know.
Q: I just got my first SSD – we are not well-to-do, what tips can you give me to extend the life of my SSD?
A: Change your vmswappiness to 10 , edit your fstab to have noatime, uninstall applications you do not use, that could end up in your startup file, like bluez, if you don’t use bluetooth or wacom for a tablet.
Q: Somehow my installation of Xubuntu 18.04 has acquired some KDE packages, I use XFCE, and I was wondering if I could just uninstall those, but what would it break?
A: From the man page: –no-act No action; perform a simulation of events that would occur based on the current system state but do not actually change the system. http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/bionic/man8/apt-get.8.html
Q: I installed Ubuntu on my Lenovo thinkstation with this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqJBniwj1Mg But I don’t know how to work this, I need to get my computer back up and running again with Windows. Everyone says I need to install Windows, but I have never done it, I have always just got my PC’s with Windows and I need all my stuff.
A: Then it is best you go over to a Windows forum. If you decide to give Ubuntu a go, we are here for you.
Q: I keep seeing “USB device failed” in Windows, but I have none such nonsense in Ubuntu. My keyboard and mouse work fine, as both are USB. What could be wrong?
A: *Shrug* Check ALL USB devices, it could be a fan or LED or coffee cup warmer too. Unplug them all and plug them in one-by-one.
Q: With the silicone shortage and all, I have struggled to find a USB headset, so I got one from Cash crusaders, model Dixon BS-V12, but it won’t work in Ubuntu, they tested t at the store, so I know it works. Somehow, nothing with Ubuntu. I can’t even find it in the sound settings.
A: Never assume. Unless the store clerk tested in front of you, it didn’t happen. They can say they tested all they like, but that model uses USB only to turn on an LED. Sound is still via 3.5mm jack.
Q: My laptop has an Intel 3160 WiFi card and previously on Ubuntu 16.04 but not now on Ubuntu 20.04 I can not install the proprietary driver. Now the driver panel says no additional drivers. How come?
A: I think it is now in the iwlwifi module. So no need to add anything.
Q: How can I get rid of a cookie acceptance pop up on my favourite website, because I set my Firefox to delete all cookies when the tab is closed. On top of that I have a cookie delete add-on, so every time I visit the website I get bugged by this pop up.
A: If you have ublock add-on installed, simply right-click the box and block it. It may require several tries, but you will figure it out.
Q: So I tried flatpaks and they work great. The issue is that the website (Flathub) has really bad images and descriptions about the apps. What are my options?
A: I am not too sure what you want from me, but the beauty of open source is you can do it yourself. Make your own. Or you can incorporate flatpaks into the software centre, or you can visit www.pling.com. It is usually a good idea to research any software first before just installing it.
Q: We are a few guys working on a lab Ubuntu server. I can’t really use the history command as it is filled with commands from other users using root. Also spoilers. How do I start it from fresh when it is my turn?
A: Use your own user with sudo, or if they don’t mind delete the history file before you start.
Q: My laptop is positively ancient, but it has a HDMI port. So I got a Dell 22 inch S2240LC on it with a new HDMI cable. It looks like it has a grey film on compared to the laptop screen. What kind of adjustments can I do on Ubuntu and where do I find them on 20.04.3 please?
A: Before fiddling with colour profiles, I suggest checking the monitor and move the contrast to 80 and the brightness to 50. Nine times out of ten, this solves the greyness issue. Otherwise, you can open the ‘color profiles’ and import your monitor profile.
Q: I am very new to Xubuntu, so don’t laugh. My media PC says battery low, like my laptop does, but it does not have one. This pops up while watching movies and it is very annoying. Thanks in advance.
A: It may be your mouse!! Before my fancy mouse got feet, it used to report to Ubuntu that the battery status was 70%. (even if it was flat) You can click on the battery icon and see what battery is listed. Or… Go to devices in your power manager to see what batteries are detected.
Q: I have a hand-me-down laptop from my uncle, a core2duo 32bit that I need 32bit Ubuntu for, but I can’t find it. Can you send me the link to the last one. I know it is not available any more.
A: That CPU is most definitely 64bit. If 64 bit Ubuntu won’t load, you probably need the latest BIOS update. Also verify your installation medium and ISO file.
Q: My laptop seems to slow down during the day, at 7am it is pretty snappy and by 7pm it is treacle. Here is my output of lshw. <removed> and free -h says I have 4.3Gi available, so memory usage is about 50%. My swap file is the same as my memory , 8GB. Oh and I am on 20.04LTS.
A: I have had an issue like this before, but it was cooling related. Clear the path of the airflow of your laptop fan and exhaust. Replace your heat transfer paste and make sure all your laptop feet are still there. (yes, it is important as it lifts your laptop from the desk) As a test once done, use your laptop on an active cooling stand and see if the problem is still there. Q: Please man, how can I rename files in Thunar to remove the website name some idiot added to all the files? If I select them all, I don’t see that option, yet I know it is possible, Linux is magic. This is what I see <DCIM00142>
A: What you are looking for is under that “insert /overwrite” go a few more down until it says “search / replace” then add the website name as the pattern to search and leave the replace blank.
Q: How can I block websites using UFW?
A: UFW is for blocking IP’s or range of IP’s and ports, to block a website simply add it to your hosts file in your /etc folder.
For example: 0.0.0.0 12724.xyz